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Smashing Bottles (PC) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:16:28) |
Heard about this one recently and got stuck playing the demo on itch (though it's also available on Steam) for a few hours until I got to the final (demo) ending!
It's an incremental game with some interesting things going on - you have a bat and smash bottles, but you have a limited time to do so (in seconds, like max 25 or so after all the upgrades?). When time runs out you can go again or go to the shop to buy upgrades. As expected you want to get more money from smashing bottles and there's ways to do that - spawn golden bottles, champagne bottles (when they smash the corks fly out and can smash other things), and even molotov cocktails (that explode, smashing other things).
There's a few things I thought where nice/clever:
a. The game has two distinct phases (once you unlock molotovs, everything changes, really) - the "you smash" and the "maximize money in the time allowed". In the latter, the game mostly plays itself as the molotovs keep everything getting smashed.
b. The "you smash" has rotating bottles, and since the smashing can take a few hits, there's some interest in smashing champagne such that the cork flies in a certain direction for more damage.
c. The champagne corks are pretty clever - since it gives you a reason to, in the short time you have to smash, choose what to smash a little more carefully. Go for golden or champagne hoping for a productive chain reaction?
Of course there's also a prestige/reset mechanic - from which you can lock a separate bat that smashes.
I'm curious how far things will go once the full game is out - and what the nature of the upgrades will be. I'm really hoping for more variety in the experience beyond the simple "number go up" - in that sense the molotovs seem like they're capping the experience in a detrimental way (even as they were super fun to smash when I first unlocked them.
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Donkey Kong Bananza (NSW2) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:07:32) |
Still playing!
It has an interesting structure in terms of its levels and such - the core metaphor is that you're going deeper into the planet with each level, and they're both thematic and numbered. I got to a point where there's a bifurcation - go right into what I thought was "jungle land" or left into "snow land". I went right did a few more levels, cleared the boss (it was plant/poison land) and in order to continue going deeper I was then told to go back to "snow land"! There's a fast travel/teleport system involving giant worms that can move your around, so it was easy enough to do this, but I was surprised to learn that the fork was just a "choose what order to do these" situation... and also, the entire "fork" makes little sense thematically so I'm curious to see how it's explained and communicated in the interface - will it look like a fork in the "hole" going into the planet's core?
The titular ability (bananza mode!) was a bit underwhelming - you turn into a bigger DK and can now punch things you couldn't before - it lasts a limited amount of time. But, I've since unlocked a new one - DK-bird - where you can glide around (and after paying to unlock) and drop an egg on enemies. The gilding around was important/necessary in the plant/poison levels, and I'm expecting it to be similarly required in the snowy ones. We'll see!
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Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) by dkirschner (May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
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Mirror's Edge (PC) by dkirschner |
| Meh so far. Just holding W and pushing spacebar.
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Good game, grew on me. Getting used to the controls makes a world of difference. |
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most recent entry: Monday 25 April, 2011
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Alright alright, done with Mirror's Edge. Short game, didn't really like it at first, but definitely grew on me. I played two long sessions, 3 hours or so each. In the first half, I basically got used to the controls, the running, jumping and melee combat. I got used to the flow of running across rooftops, runner vision, and the cutscene story -> mission -> cutscene story -> mission format. Learning can be frustrating, but playing well is satisfying. In the second session, I played well. I beat up enemies with gusto and ran with finesse. I was also more adept at intuiting which direction to run. Also, I feel the level design was actually better in the second half and the missions were more exciting.
So what is Mirror's Edge? Mirror's Edge is dystopian parkour. You play as Faith, a runner, in a police state urban environment. Runners are subversive elements who relay political messages, illegal packages, etc. from place to place in the city, gliding on rooftops, using the urban environment to their mobile advantage. An up-and-coming politician was murdered, Faith's sister framed. Faith has to find out the circumstances of the murder, who really did it, clear her sister's name, put the killer to rest, and ultimately save her sis. The story was pretty cool, and mostly delivered in anime-style cut scenes dividing missions.
Levels involved Faith running from point A to point B, basically, then receiving instructions to get to point C, and so on, via Merc on a radio transmitter. Running is of course the main mechanic of the game and what sets it apart from anything else I've played. Now, it's not totally as original as it sounds because at its heart, it's just a platformer without puzzles. Reminded me very much of the Prince of Persia series. The difference, like I said, is the emphasis on running and 'flow.' There's flow in Prince of Persia and other platformers of course, but Mirror's Edge makes a big deal out of it by giving you 'runner vision,' which highlights important spots in the environment bright red. So as you're running to the edge of a building, you'll see a plank sticking out turn red, or a pipe on the side of the opposite building fade into red, meaning "Hey, go there." At first, I wasn't feeling this supposed flow very much, but as I played, I got a better feel for the controls. Say you have a big box in front of you. If you run right up to it and then jump, Faith will slowly pull herself up. If you come at the box with speed and time your jump, Faith will gracefully scale it. It's all about speed and timing. If you navigate in the best way, Faith's movements are quick and efficient, and it's really graceful. Despite how cool it can feel to get a hot streak of running, the mechanic is super basic and feels a little boring at times, saved though by the excitement of jumping across the tops of buildings at high speed. You basically hold W (forward run) and push space bar (jump/climb) over and over the whole game.
At the beginning of the game, I got frustrated at this one jump, literally right at the beginning, that almost made me quit immediately. There were a couple other relatively minor areas that were frustrating because I couldn't find the precision to make Faith do what I wanted her to do. In all the rest, I ended up working on the controls and getting the move down. But that first one, I think was just ridiculously punishing and a bad spot to locate it in first thing. There were some other sections later on where I was a little stuck as to where to go, and then figured it out, but the path wasn't anything I would have thought to do. Like "Oh, I can climb on this? I haven't had to do that before." There was another part where you have to do this running wall jump, but jump halfway because the space wasn't big enough for an actual wall jump. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me, so I went to a walkthrough, which noted that the tutorial, instructions, controls, nothing tells you this (and a couple other) move is possible, so I guess I was just supposed to magically figure it out. Ah yes, and there was a bug that caused the game to freeze. Luckily I was able to patch it away early.
I have two favorite things about Mirror's Edge. First is the general visual aesthetic. The game is whitewashed, bright, bright whites and pastels. I mentioned the red of runner vision. There is also yellow, blue, lime green, orange, and a couple others. It's really pretty and really cool-looking. The graphics themselves are really nice too. At one point I emerged onto a boat deck and saw the cityscape across the ocean. I went "whoa" out loud and looked for a minute. And since you're in a city scaling buildings, the game is vertical. You go up and down, up and down, instead of the typical side to side. A couple levels were practically nothing but finding your way up 8 or 9 stories of a building, and then maybe back down.
My other favorite thing was a specific sequence where you must jump on a train and avoid fans and support beams as it goes. Then you come to a low-hanging ceiling and have to jump trains, and avoid more stuff. It was just really intense and unexpected. There were other cool sequences too, notably anything involving chasing/being chased.
So, neat game. Loved the style, and the platforming was done pretty well. I'd like some more variety in acrobatics and a longer story because I felt like it was over as I was really getting the hang of it. I think a sequel to this game could be really great. The story totally leaves it open for one.
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